Standoff ends: Senate voting changes pass Upper House

by dburdon

Daniel BurdonDaniel Burdon is APN Australian Regional Media's Canberra bureau reporter, covering federal parliament and politics. He was previously a rural and general news reporter at the Morning Bulletin in Rockhampton and worked in Alice Springs for the Centralian Advocate.

THE Coalition, The Greens and Senator Nick Xenophon have finally succeeded in passing major changes to the Senate voting system, after a marathon sitting of the Upper House in Canberra.

Sittings began on Thursday at 9am, and are still underway, but the Senate has just passed the government bills, after more than 40 hours of debate this week, and a continuous 30 hours sitting today and yesterday.

The debate degenerated into claims of "filthy" deals, and was characterised by Labor Senator Glenn Sterle as a "political colonoscopy" late yesterday.

Some 37 amendments were proposed to change the reforms, but most except the govenrment's changes were voted down.

Those proposed changes include Labor amendments on limiting political donation reform, and to include provisions for marriage equality, which The Greens voted down with the Coalition, despite both issues being long-standing Greens policy to vote in support of.